Do Introductory Statistics Courses in the United States Improve Students' Attitudes?

We examined the attitudes of about 2200 students enrolled in 101 sections of post-secondary introductory statistics service courses located across the United States. Using the "Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics-36," we assessed students' attitudes when they entered and left their...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inStatistics education research journal Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 86 - 94
Main Authors Schau, Candace, Emmioglu, Esma
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published International Association for Statistics Education and the International Statistical Institute 01.11.2012
International Association for Statistical Education
Subjects
Attitude (Psychology)
Attitude Change
College Mathematics
College Students
Educational aspects
Introductory Courses
Mathematical statistics
Mathematics
Positive Attitudes
Pretests Posttests
Psychological aspects
Statistics
Student Attitudes
Student Surveys
Study and teaching
United States
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Summary:We examined the attitudes of about 2200 students enrolled in 101 sections of post-secondary introductory statistics service courses located across the United States. Using the "Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics-36," we assessed students' attitudes when they entered and left their courses, as well as changes in attitudes across their courses. Results showed that, on average, students entered these courses with neutral (Affect, Difficulty), positive (Cognitive Competence, Value, Interest), and very positive (Effort) attitudes. Their attitudes either stayed about the same (Affect, Cognitive Competence, Difficulty) or decreased (Value, Interest, Effort). These results help us understand the current impact of introductory statistics instruction in U.S. institutions. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)
ISSN:1570-1824
1570-1824
DOI:10.52041/serj.v11i2.331